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They’re getting ready for the Shell Eco-Marathon in April

A Northern Eco Team member sets his stopwatch in order to time the single-passenger car as it drives along Northern Collegiate's 400-metre track, driven by team member Maria Peregoudov. (Carl Hnatyshyn/Postmedia Network)

A group of 18 students from Northern Collegiate are preparing to give college and university students from across North and South America a run for their money.

The Northern Eco Team – a group of technical and science students working together to design a streamlined, fuel-efficient, single-passenger, gas-powered vehicle – are hoping they can leave their competition in the dust during Shell Eco-Marathon Americas, which is to be held in Detroit April 27-29.

The unique event brings together teams of students from high schools, colleges and universities from across the hemisphere, all of whom are charged with the task of designing, building, then driving energy-efficient cars to see who can go the furthest on the equivalent of one litre of fuel.

The competition is held in Detroit, which gives local students the opportunity to participate and attend the high-profile event, said Shell spokesperson Randy Provencal.

“I think the fact it's being held in Detroit, so close to home and just an hour away, really makes it viable for teams from Sarnia to participate,” he said. “Northern's Eco Team were the lone Canadian high school team that entered the Shell Eco Marathon last year in Detroit, and from my understanding it was the first time that a Canadian high school has ever participated. So that was a huge accomplishment.”

Provencal, who also serves as an adviser to the Eco Team's marketing department, said last year's Northern team – the Sarnia school’s first-ever entry into the competition – did an incredible job in creating a car from scratch, passing numerous safety and efficiency tests, then finishing 19th in a field of 42 other schools.

The Northern vehicle achieved a fuel economy of 352.1 miles per gallon (US).

“To watch this team over the course of the year was really, really inspiring,” Provencal said. “They took something from a concept to what you see on the track right now. And there were so many great stories, too. I was excited for them last year and I'm equally as excited for them this year.”

While last year's focus was on building a car from the ground up and getting it on the track, this year's focus is on improving the already-built car by making it a far more fuel-efficient vehicle, said Eco Team member Madison Paterson.

“We're basically seeing what we can do to make it better,” she said. “So we're running the car on the track, recording all of our times, seeing what our problem is each time and Maria, our driver, she's testing when she should hit the throttle, when she should turn, when should she not, all of which has to do with our fuel efficiency.

“We have people on the science side, and they're working on fuel injection, which is our main goal this year. Then we have our accounting and business side, who are working with all of our sponsors and trying to secure new ones, because the team relies mainly on sponsors,” Paterson continued.

“And we have the manufacturing and engineering people who are working on the actual car, trying to make it lighter.”

Driver Maria Peregoudov, who must squeeze herself into the barely-off-the-ground, condensed car frame, said spirits are high among this year's Eco Team, mostly because of the knowledge they gained from last year's competition.

“This year we're a bit more organized than last year and we kind of know what we're doing,” she said. “So we're more focused. We're trying to figure out what fuel injectors we want – it's hard to find one that's perfect for our vehicle – and we're also thinking about spokes, aerodynamics, going through the physics side of things to make the car more efficient and improve the fuel economy.”

Not only does this year's team have more confidence, Peregoudov said, but it also has five females on board the Northern Eco Team train.

“There's more girls on the team this year, so that's pretty exciting too,” she said, laughing. “Seriously, though, we just want to represent our school and our community well. Last year we did really well and we hope we can do better this year.”

For Northern science teacher James Stover, one of three teacher-advisers to the Eco Team, the whole experience has introduced students to a number of invaluable hands-on, real-life learning opportunities, which have already helped shape some of their future educational choices.

“It's a project they can all work on. It's not like a class project – sometimes there's no answer, sometimes you have to find a different way of doing it, but they all get so much out of it,” Stover said. “There are a number of students interested in going into auto engineering after this, and with the huge investments we see in driverless cars now, this is such a good springboard for them.

“We really come from all sorts of backgrounds,” added Eco Team manager and Grade 12 student Joseph Iaccino. “There are students out there that are learning about the physics of the car and data measurement, there are other students working on the lathe, working on manufacturing side of it, and we have students working on welding, working on marketing. So it's really giving people an opportunity to think about their futures.”

From his own experience last year, Iaccino said the Eco-Marathon competition helped change his perspective on what he wanted to pursue in terms of a career.

“Last year at this time I was unsure where I wanted to go to university,” he said. “About a month ago last year I thought I was going to go into a science field. I haven't completely written that off, but after being on the Eco Team, I'm more interested in technology, so I'm looking at colleges instead. I'm looking at welding programs as well as mechanical engineering programs.

“I guess if I'm talking about a potential future career, I'd say I want to become a technology teacher,” he continued. “I've really been inspired by the teachers involved in this project and I want to help inspire others just like they have.”

In terms of making a prediction on how the team will finish during next April's competition, Iaccino said while there’s a desire among team members to finish in the top 10 and the goal is to more than double last year's fuel efficiency (the target for this year is 750 MPG), the journey is actually more important than the destination.

“We just want to make as much of an improvement as possible on last year's time and last year's results, but at the same time we realize that this is a learning project, so we want to learn as much as possible,” he said. “That's the key.”

To learn more about sponsoring this year's Northern Eco Team, contact Doug McArthur at 519-384-5925 or email northerneco@gmail.com.